How Dare The Editorial Boards Of The Jamaican Papers Tell Police How To Grieve..

Woman Constable Crystal Thomas was laid to rest in an emo­tion­al cer­e­mo­ny in Spanish Town almost a week ago . The Funeral ser­vice was attend­ed by Minister Of National Security Peter Bunting and Opposition Spokesman on National Security Derrick Smith. Also in atten­dance was min­is­ter with respon­si­bil­i­ty for the pub­lic sec­tor, Horace Dalley.

When events like these hap­pen in our life­time they jog our social con­sciences and we are out­raged. When the pain inflict­ed on our com­mu­ni­ties is this shock­ing we grieve in una­nim­i­ty with our neigh­bors. I nev­er met Crystal Thomas yet I could not hold back the tears. Neither the nation­s’s Prime Minister nor the Leader of the Opposition had the time to stand with the fam­i­ly of Crystal Thomas. I will get back to that.
Crystal was not the only Police Officer to lose her life with­in a cou­ple of days of each other.

Twenty-two years old Constable Curtis Lewis was ran over and killed by a motor­cy­clist who did not think he should have to lis­ten to the offi­cer’s law­ful com­mand to stop . Constable Lewis’ leg was sev­ered from his body. The young offi­cer died in Hospital. This most despi­ca­ble act of crim­i­nal dis­obe­di­ence, das­tard­ly and utter­ly unthink­able though it was. It was not wor­thy, nei­ther did it elic­it a sin­gle response from the Nation’s Prime Minister. To date we don’t exact­ly know what the charges are for the rid­er of the Motorcycle. Chances are if the case does get to Court one of the nations almighty judges will find a tech­ni­cal­i­ty on which to release him back into the society.

Constable Lynden Barrett was gunned down on Wellington Street in West Kingston his death was not impor­tant enough to elic­it a response from the Nation’s Prime MinisterThe Police for it’s incom­pe­tent part released the names of three men whom they say are respon­si­ble for Constable Barret’s death. The three are Gratiano Green, oth­er­wise called ‘Beh Beh’, of Regent Street and Tulip Lane in Denham Town, Kingston 14; Nicholas Drummond, oth­er­wise called ‘Ticki Dollar’, of Christopher Road, Kingston 14; and Horatio

Livine, oth­er­wise called ‘Ratio’, of Dread Lane, Denham Town, Kingston 14.
To date there is no infor­ma­tion regard­ing whether these three alleged mur­der­ers have been appre­hend­ed or elim­i­nat­ed for the killing of Constable Barrtett. When Police Officers are killed their killers must be appre­hend­ed with­in hours . Apprehension must be the ulti­mate inten­tion of those who go after them but make no mis­take about it there should be no hes­i­ta­tion in exter­mi­nat­ing them if they decide to put up a fight.

Thirty two year-old Corporal Tyrone Thompson died alleged­ly as a result of sui­cide in Manchester. We don’t know whether the Investigations deci­sive­ly and con­clu­sive­ly decid­ed his death was sui­cide as was ini­tial­ly report­ed . His death was not impor­tant enough to war­rant or elic­it a sin­gle response from the Prime Minister.
Neither the indi­vid­ual death of each offi­cer nor their col­lec­tive passing

with­ing the short span of time was momen­tous enough to elic­it a response from the Nations Prime Minister.

Portia Simpson Miller was laud­ed in Time Magazine, hailed as one of the world’s most influ­en­tial per­sons a cou­ple of years ago. At the time I was incred­i­bly indif­fer­ent to that hon­or being bestowed on her. I thought it was un-earned and a mock­ery to hard work­ing women who are real­ly doing impact­ful work toward the ben­e­fit of all mankind. I was also mind­ful of the pol­i­tics of that des­ig­na­tion based on her response in the debate lead­ing up to her elec­tion to revis­it the bug­gery laws.
If the Prime Minister was indeed influ­en­tial as des­ig­nat­ed by Time Magazine, would­n’t this be the time for Portia Simpson Miller to step up to the plate and speak out about the killing of the Island Police officers?
There was gen­er­al­ly a con­sen­sus on the part of police offi­cers dur­ing my time that we may suf­fer harm in the line of duty. Many offi­cers have been killed, many have been shot in the line of duty and many more have been injured

and killed even in their own homes. What we nev­er quite embraced men­tal­ly was the killing of female police offi­cers. I know the cyn­ics will quick­ly dis­miss that argu­ing that all police offi­cers know the risks beforehand.
This Article is not for those cynics.

Many years ago anoth­er female offi­cer was mur­dered, I was a serv­ing mem­ber then. Constable Johnston was killed on her way to work. Criminals board­ed the Bus on which she was a pas­sen­ger they robbed the pas­sen­gers of what­ev­er valu­ables they had. Constable Johnston was car­ry­ing a bag with her uni­form in it. On the basis of that Uniform Constable Johnston was mer­ci­less­ly sex­u­al­ly assault­ed and mur­dered. Her killing enraged the Nation. I will go to my grave sat­is­fied that I was among those who found the demon­ic pieces of garbage who vio­lat­ed her.
Well over two decades lat­er con­sta­ble Crystal Thomas trav­el­ling on a public

pas­sen­ger bus met some­what the same fate as con­sta­ble Johnston.

When Ex-police offi­cers and Police offi­cers lash out at these killings we lash out because noth­ing has changed in the way our offi­cers are treat­ed. When the Federation Chairman lash­es out the last thing we need is to hear the views of the Editorial board of the Observer.
We don’t want to hear the views of the edi­to­r­i­al board of the Gleaner.
We do not give a shit about the views of crim­i­nals sup­port­ing Terrence Willaims of (inde­com).
And we damn sure do not care about the ver­bal char­ac­ter­i­za­tion of the police hat­ing vil­lage lawyers telling us when to speak or what we need to say.
On That basis we stand with the Police Federation and we here and now push back against the Elitist scums in the soci­ety who take it onto them­selves to tell police offi­cers how they should lit­i­gate or grieve. How dare the pre­ten­tious a**holes tell police offi­cer how they should grieve? How dare they tell the

Federation Chairman what he can say and should not say?Who autho­rize Police hat­ing Terrence Williams and Hamish Campbell to speak to this issue.

The coun­try is going to hell in a hand-bas­ket. The mild­ly lit­er­ate Head of state hides behind oth­ers yet the pur­vey­ors of anar­chy and polit­i­cal cor­rect­ness dare tell police offi­cers what they may say and dare ques­tion their right to say it.
Who the hell are these peo­ple who believe Jamaica belongs to them. What sac­ri­fice have they made for country ?
Here’s a word to Terrence Williams you go ahead and per­se­cute the Police and we will turn up the heat on you . There is an old Jamaican proverb “di higer di mon­key clime di more him expose”. It is abun­dant­ly clear that Williams wants to be in the lime-light we are going to make sure that as he choos­es so be it. Keep the light on the police and we damn sure will keep the light on you.
To the edi­to­r­i­al boards of the two dishrags which pass as gen­uine news­pa­pers, hide behind edi­to­ri­als we say this to you many of you soon will need to seek employ­ment else­where. Hardly any­one reads your news­pa­pers any­more and guess what your opin­ions don’t mat­ter anyway.
We sup­port Police Federation Chairman Raymond Wilson’s right to speak out at Crystal’s funer­al. I did not hear any com­plaints from Crystal’s mom in fact the con­gre­gants of that church, hum­ble folks, loved his speech. No one tells us what to say or when to say it.